Halloween or not?

A while back I seem to remember that conservative fundamentalist (a redundancy? LOL) churches were very against the practice of Halloween.
I haven't seen any uproar of that sort on here. Is that still the case?
I've seen several Christian churches in my area with Halloween type stuff (Jack O'Lanterns, for example) on their front lawns.
Mel

Not mine. My preacher doesn't really preach against it but the church has a play it puts on for Halloween. It's called the Halls of Hell and is a story of a young man who rejects Christ and drives drunk. He gets killed and goes to Hell. Now that's a play that will make you think.

The local churches have STOLEN my trick-or-treaters. I have always had to buy 6-7 big bags of candy, but for the last three years I haven't had a single kid come to the door. All the churchs in this area are having some kind of activity to keep the kids safe, I quess. Anyway, I miss the old days when kids were coming in droves and the little "Boogers" had to work for their treats.
Janice

The further south I go the more I notice Halloween is a no no. I'm now in the Tidewater area of Va and one city has decided to hold halloween on Saturday since it falls on Sunday this year. But the others are holding it on sunday. There are several people at my work who do not let their children celebrate halloween. Our family has always enjoyed halloween. We don't celebrate the devil though.

Peanut, I noticed for the 10 years at least they've been trying to kill Halloween. The first foray down here was a big West Nile Virus frenzy. It's never been the same since.
Don't "they" (LOL) it was originally (after the pagan times) a Christian/Catholic holiday of All Hallow's Eve, and it still is in Mexico (Day of the Dead) where you respect your departed ones, and has nothing whatsoever to do with devil worship? I guess not.
Mel

I remember this kind of talk last yr here in the kitchen. There's no such thing as "devil's night" all days and nights belong to God unless an individual decides and believes differently for their own self. Which really doesn't change the fact that it's still a night belonging to God other than some people have then opened themselves up to trouble by saying otherwise. As for halloween.....the barrier between the spirit world and the world we live in isn't any thinner than at any other time. That's a bunch of broohaha. Now of course if people really want to open themselves up to demonic activity they can and just may end up sorry. As for jackolanturns being used to ward off the druids so that none would be taken from their home and sacificed into the bone-fire (which has now been softened to be bon-fire). Well there's no longer any fear of that happening in society. Pumpkins are great and my kids love to carve them; it's fun. My children also love candy and get a pile of it. We ignore the grotesque costumes and go for the fun ones. We have nothing to do with the creepy side of halloween and don't go door-to-door (saves me having to check all the candy anyway). No, the Christians I know don't participate in halloween or devil's night. But we really party and it's a lot of fun when we all get together.

My family and I do not celebrate Halloween and we are conservative Christians. However, we do have a fall festival at someone's house on Saturday and Sunday we are having church as usual with a singing group that night. Some say that you shouldn't have any type of celebration on that day. I grew up celebrating Halloween and trick-or-treating. However, now that I know a little bit more about what it is about I feel that as a Christian it isn't right for me to celebrate it. (This is just my conviction! I don't have problems with other Christians who don't feel this way.) Our preacher did say the other day that he doesn't believe we should be celebrating it. He also said that if anyone in our church did celebrate it that he didn't want to offend them or anything but this was his personal conviction. My sister and her family do celebrate it. We have gotten into some arguments about it in the past, but not anymore. We have learned to respect each other's point of view.

SGT, we've really got to stop this agreeing thing. We will cause a rift in the fabric of time! LOL
Mel

Mel our Catholic Church has a big "Trunk or Treat" night on halloween... They have a haunted house and all kinds of neat things for the kids... We can go there and set up in the parking lot and the kids go by all of the parked cars, in their costumes collecting candy in a safe enviroment... They have been doing this for about 4 years now... It really is a great idea :)

Diana

lol! It is nice though!

LOL - SGT. It's always nice to find common ground. :-)
CandB - that sounds like a great idea. My church is having a Halloween party this Sunday, where we're all giving out candy, too.
Mel

Growing up, my parents did not believe in celebrating Haloween. They preferred to emphasize Reformation Day.

But DH and I let our children dress up for Halloween. AND my mom always tells me to come over so she can see the kids' costumes and give them their candy.

Our small town has an organized party for the kids. We all meet at the communtiy center, divide into age groups and each age group has a route to walk. The people in town can sign up to be on one of the routes. If you do not want trick or treaters, you don't sign up. The routes are geared towards the ages--preschoolers have the closer houses and shorter route. We parents divide up to accompany each group and we carry buckets because we also do the collection for UNICEF. After it's all done (does not take too long because the population of our town is 140) we meet back at the communtiy center for supper. Kids love it and we don't get home too late.

I just found the best article on this subject! If you're interested it's a good read.

http://www.str.org/free/commentaries/life/hallowee.htm

I think much of it is due to the candy with razor blades and poison scare of a few years back. We used to have kids by the droves at our door.. We barely get 2 dozen now. My Sis decorates her huge yard with all sorts of scarey stuff and people drive by and stop and enjoy it, but she said she notices that she has fewer visitors now, also. May just be that the kids in the neighborhood are all grown now, but many go to parties and other functions instead.
Our local Senior Citizen Care Centers have the children come as well as the local malls.
Some of my friends have Harvest Parties instead of Halloween Parties, but the kids have just as much fun. Just more emphasis on the changing of seasons rather then Halloween.
Which ever you do, be sure your children are careful out there, and be with them. Their safety is really what matters..
Hey, Mel, Sipping, nice to see you friends.. :)
Ridge*

Our church is also doing a Trunk or Treat but it is not on Halloween, but it is this Wednesday night. Us adults are encouraged to dress up as wll as decorate our trunks.